A Tour of Artists’ Studios in Los Angeles

What better way to raise funds to house the homeless than to take a tour of artists’ studios?

That’s the thinking behind the 5th Annual Venice Design Series – a curated look at Los Angeles in the 20th and 21st centuries.

The tour of four Eastside Los Angeles artists’ studios is one of six events aimed at creating neighborhood solutions for homelessness in Venice Beach, says Cecilia Dan, an art collector and co-chair of the Venice Design Series.

“The idea is not to push the homeless out of the community, but to embrace them and make them part of the community,” she says. “If we embrace them, everybody wins.”

Tomorrow, 45 people making a donation of $500 each will be able to see four artists at work in their studios. Among them are:

Roy Dowell, a contemporary painter of myths and symbols. His artistic practice separates real objects and events from the language traditionally used to describe them, creating new, layered meanings.

Cammie Staros, who looks specifically to the shapely vessels of Classical Greece in her work. The artist’s hand-built objects marry ancient ceramic techniques with modern industrial materials such as milled and turned woods and machined metals. The resulting sculptures are rooted in history, but are disarmingly present.

Theodora Allen, whose paintings are quiet, restrained, and at times unsettling. Drawing from music, literature, myth and nature, Allen’s meditative compositions investigate themes of temporality and eternity, exploring a space between the physical world and an interior mindscape.

And David Wiseman, one of the leading American designers of his generation. His work draws inspiration from his fascination with the natural world, global decorative arts traditions, and a reverence for honoring timeless craft technique.

They’re some of the more gifted artists practicing in Los Angeles today, and for good reason. “L.A. has a wealth of artists, because of the MFA programs surrounding the city, like U.C.L.A., Claremont, Cal Arts, the Arts Center, U.C. Irvine and U.C. Riverside,” Dan says. “They’re all programs where some of best artists are teaching.”

Now four of them will help the Venice Design Series as it tackles one of the nation’s more persistent challenges.